Page 256 of Out of Left Field

Maybe Charley needed to know real love was out there, but I suspected she also needed a distraction from her own troubles. “We’re going to tell everyone soon, so you have to keep this under wraps.” I glanced inside at where Annalise was laughing with Kate. “Especially from Annalise and Kate. We want to tell Seth and Isaac ourselves.”

Charley grinned. “Of course. I would never, ever take that away from you.”

“I know.”

She leaned closer. “So what happened?”

Because I knew I could trust her, because she was just slightly outside of our inner circle, and mostly because I could see how much she needed it, I told her everything.

“I knew something happened that night!” She fist-pumped the air. “You’ve been keeping it a secret this whole time?”

“No, we backed way off. Dates, kisses, getting to know the new us. Then two days ago…”

“You banged.” She nodded. “No, this is good. Really good. You know it’s what you want. You took the steps and didn’t rush it.”

“It’s a little scary. It feels big.” I flashed back to England, standing with Everett in the Cotswolds, overwhelmed by inability to capture the scale of things.

Our friendship was one of the most important things in my life. But our love…it might be bigger. And that was huge. I needed to ground all of the enormity in something tangible.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and I pulled it out to find a notification that the doorman was outside. He had five packages.

One for Kate from Isaac. One for Olivia from Chris. Another from Erik for Zoe, and one from Seth for Annalise.

One from Everett for me.

But everyone was so busy fawning over the other packages that no one noticed the final, smallest one that I slipped into my pocket. Not even Charley, who’d gotten caught up in Annalise’s squeals over the set of trainers in her package.

So I slipped into the bathroom and shut the door. The package was tiny and inside was a pink velvet drawstring pouch. I shook its contents out onto my palm and froze.

It was the shell I’d given Rosie. She’d polished it, bringing out the colors, and sealed it. A hole had been drilled and it was strung on a long rose gold chain. It was a stunning piece. I set it on the counter beside my sink and returned to the pouch. There was a note tucked inside.

Rosie finished the shell and I thought it would make a perfect necklace. I hope it reminds you of our night together. I hope it makes you feel a part of the Anson family. But mostly I hope that it reminds you of me.

I love you. Miss you. -E

I stared at the note, then the necklace, then the note again. It was such a simple piece of jewelry. The shell wasn’t rare or unique. But I found it that morning on the beach outside our cottage. Rosie had taken it to work her magic on it. And now Everett had turned it into something I could wear all the time. It was so perfect I couldn’t help but tear up a little.

I wanted something to ground all the big things I was feeling and bam! Everett put it right into my hands. If that wasn’t a sign it was time for us to go public, I didn’t know what was.

“Knock, knock!” Everett rapped his knuckles lightly against my office door as he stepped inside. “Who's ready for date night?”

It was one of his rare days off. The Mantas got in around two in the morning, so Everett crashed out until after lunch. I flew through my afternoon work so we could spend as much time together as possible.

“Let me just shut everything down.” I saved open files and closed programs.

“Still up for a movie?” He leaned against my desk looking delicious in a pair of gray golf shorts and dark blue V-neck t-shirt. His beard was freshly trimmed, his hair just long enough to curl at the ends, and he had a Mantas baseball hat on backwards. His sunglasses hung from his collar.

While we avoided going out in public, even as friends, movies were acceptable since it was a dark room where everyone was paying attention to the screen. Plus, someone had to recognize Everett in order to care. And since we usually went at the least popular times due to our schedules, that wasn’t likely to happen.

“Yep. And afterward I thought we could grab dinner at the sushi place across the street.”

He froze, his hand planted on my desk, the muscles flexing just enough to make my mouth water. “Have you bought out the place?”

I powered down my computer, shut the laptop, and stowed the tablet. “Nope.” Then I held my breath.

This was big, but I had no doubt Everett’s reaction would be bigger.

He stood still. Not a muscle twitching. “We’re going to eat dinner together? Just the two of us. In a public setting?”